Makey-Cakey

Spooky Snacks

2016-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

It's Halloween (almost).
And I've remembered in time (just) that I made lots of Halloween themed food last year, which I never shared.
We had a whole day where all of the meals and snacks were spooky (apart from breakfast - so 66% meals... whatever!)

I made them to offset the Halloween sadness over being given treats and snacks at several Halloween functions that weren't dairy free. Understandable both from a logistical perspective, and from a small-child upset point of view.

Not quite decided yet what I'm making this year...

Morning snack
Monster mouths: Apple slices filled with peanut butter, apricot tongue/raisin and peanut teeth, and icing eyes.
Ghosts: Bananas, raisins and dairy free chocolate chips

Lunch
Scary Snot Face: Hard boiled egg, raisin/sultana eyes. Ketchup blood vessels. Carrot nose, dairy free pesto snot, cracker and ketchup mouth.

Afternoon snack
"Spider" (it's missing a few legs, the plum wasn't very big!): Plum, blueberries on cocktail sticks, marshmallows on halved cocktail sticks with black icing eyes.

Dinner
Spider-web pizza: Tortilla wrap, tomato sauce, dairy free cheese, black olives

Spooky Sharing Platter:
Hot-dog directed worms (with ketchup and some little bits of olive)
Crunchy bones and blood (crispy chilli beef and sweet and sour sauce)
Pumpkin patch - carrot slices in puree'd pea dip
Mini-crispbread toast gravestones

Proof that not all Halloween food fun is chocolatey (or even sweet!)

More Cakes for a good cause

2016-04-30T14:00:00+00:00

In March last year I posted a roundup of the first few cakes I had made since starting to volunteer for Free Cakes For Kids.

They are a community based charity which provides free birthday cakes, baked and decorated by volunteers, to children and families that would otherwise be unlikely to have one.

They have volunteer groups all across the UK, so if you think you'd like to use your cake decorating skills to bring a little bit of sunshine to children and young people coping with a whole range of difficult situations, then find one near you on the website and sign up!

A year on, and I've racked up a few more that I'd like to share.

High-heel shoes

Football stadium (expressly requested with players)

Horse

Frozen

Power Rangers

Ballet

Minecraft

The Incredibles

Mermaid

BMX Scooter

Frozen

Q1 2016 - the recipe-less, un-blogged, neglected creations!

2016-04-29T22:08:00+00:00

Here's a quick run though things I've made, thought were tasty, successful or interesting enough to warrant a picture, but never got round to posting.

All recipes now well and truly forgotten too!

Mini cauliflower, tuna and rice crustless quiches

Spicy honey roasted parsnips

Japanese cabbage pancake

Quick creamy tomato and almond pasta sauce: before...

Quick creamy tomato and almond pasta sauce: after

Mini caramel apple galettes

Green chicken noodle soup

Mushroom stroganoff with creamy coconut yoghurt

Veggie meatball toad in the holes

Brown bread salad

LOTS of little scones!

Mini chocolate-glazed cake doughnuts

Because you don’t have to cook when you’re on holiday…

2016-04-29T21:15:00+00:00

So, we went on holiday at the start of April.

I planned a holiday-themed food blog post. Some nice photos, local produce, etc.

Instead, this is what I ended up with when sorting through the holiday snaps....

Tinned spaghetti hoops, heated in the can on mini stove, accompanied by peanut butter bagels. Sheltering behind a rock from the wind.

Oatcakes. Topped with peanut butter (a recurring theme) and dried apricots. We actually ate these in the car, parked in front of a really lovely hotel, because it was too late in the day to stop for that long with Mini-M. And we looked like drowned rats from a wet walk.

Camping stove. Boiling water to make up instant noodle soup.

Marshmallow and sausage. Cremated together on the same stick.

Go us, and our high standard of culinary excellence....

(We were on holiday in Kintyre - bottom picture is Westport Beach. The fact that it was 8 degrees with squally heavy showers meant we had it to ourselves - the joys of Scottish holidays!)

Not Baking but Faking: Giant veggie sausage roll

2016-03-06T22:10:00+00:00

There area officially not enough hours in the day.
I'd personally like about 28 each day I think - if anyone could sort that out it would be much appreciated!
Until then, shortcuts are required: kitchen time is finite, and since I use up a fair amount of it baking birthday cakes for Free Cakes For Kids, what's left has to be quick and easy.

Today's lunch creation is definitely in the category I'm christening "Not Baking but Faking". Really tasty though, so I'm sharing it here.

Giant Veggie Sausage Roll (serves 4)

1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry
1 pouch cauliflower rice (I used Cauli Rice Indian Pilau style)
1 single serve instant grain pot (I used Artisan Grains mint tabouleh pot)
1 small snack-size humous pot
1 egg, beaten

Take the pastry out of the fridge about 30 mins before you want to use it.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Make the grain pot according to the pack instructions.
Mix together the rehydrated grains, cauli-rice and humous together.
Unroll the pastry.
Spread the filling in a line down one half long-ways, leaving a centimetre gap all around the edge for sealing.
Brush around the edge very lightly with beaten egg, then fold over the other half.
Seal by pressing down with a fork.
Brush all over with the rest of the beaten egg.
Pierce a few fork holes in the top to allow steam to escape.
Slide onto a baking sheet and bake for around 30-40m until golden brown and puffed up.
Cool very slightly before slicing and serving.

We enjoyed it with a salad. The filling stayed nice and firm - making it a good veggie sausage roll contender, just with a lot more flavour.

Plain on the outside…

2016-01-27T22:14:00+00:00

Since it is/was Chocolate Cake day today, I thought I'd better bake one!

Here's a white chocolate and apricot loaf, which I'm taking with me to a work meeting tomorrow.

For that reason, I can't tell you how it tastes, as passing round a half-eaten cake doesn't seem so hospitable! It smells gooooood but certainly doesn't look fancy - although as I was often told growing up, it's what's on the inside that counts!

It's adapted from Nigella's "Storecupboard Chocolate Orange Cake". I'm trying to reduce the amount of typing I do, so here's my spidery recipe scrawl… (click on the picture to see the full image and method)

2015 Sweet Roundup

2016-01-09T23:04:00+00:00

Following on from the savoury roundup, and without further ado, here's a sweet 2015 retrospective - all dairy free as usual.

Cherry, chocolate and nut galette

Strawberry scones - Hello Kitty shaped, of course

Pink porridge

Jam on the horizon

Polkadot cake

30x birthday party sushi-style snack packs

Homemade red wine!

One of may batches of pancakes. Probably with some oats and ground almonds chucked in for good measure

Pretzels from the bakery, decorated by Mini-M

Norfolk hedgerow pudding

Pancake names (turns out you need to write them back to front for them to look good once they're cooked)

Gingerbread pancakes - did I mention we like pancakes?

Chocolate profiteroles with hazelnut filling

Eclairs with chocolate filling

Fruity mango porridge

Marzipan, mincemeat and plum tart

Oreo and M&M cake with birthday bunting

Chocolate cake with raspberries

Glitzy peppermint creams

Rhubarb and custard cake (DF)

Plain fruit cake...

Fruitcake decorate in the way only a 5 year old can

Chocolate brownie

Birthday cake

Chocolate cherry cupcakes

Pink grapefruit drizzle cake

Apple and seed breakfast bites

Chocolate coconut fudge

Chocolate mug cake

2015 Savoury Roundup

2016-01-09T22:27:00+00:00

It's 2016. A new year, and a resolution to strike a better work life balance than 2015, part of which means I might hopefully manage a few more blog posts. We'll see!

I did cook stuff last year (although there were a lot of fish fingers on the menu too…). Some of it was quite nice - I love a good fish finger sandwich.

And with some sense of unrealistic optimism, I even took a few photos of things as I went along, which then languished on my SD card and cluttered up my DropBox, so in the name of a New Year clear out, here are those pictures - a visual smorgasbord of some of the non-fish-finger meals we ate last year.

Pasta with chard pesto

Refried bean french toast bake

Meatballs with roasted cauliflower "rice", dairy free "cheese" sauce and tomatoes

Dairy free moussaka

Spaghetti and sausage dairy free carbonara

Scrambled chard and sausage on toast

Tuna and green pepper potato hash with poached egg

Mashed potato topped pie - no idea what was in it!

Penne with kale and turkey sausage

Christmas dinner pizza

Fennel, almonds, apple, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice….

Blitz! Quick and healthy pasta sauce ready to go

Carrot puree, egg, oats, spices - mix….

Carrot and seed koftas

Tomato soup

Lattice topped creamy dairy free chicken pot pie

So there you have it - we ate at least 16 meals which didn't feature spaghetti hoops or fish fingers...

Not cake

2015-09-02T22:05:00+00:00

Sporadically I blog about cake - sometimes about veg.

However this evening I've been thinking about statistics, and specifically death rates.

Because given the events that are unfolding in Syria, the Mediterranean and across Europe, it's hard not to think about these things.

And having thought, and researched and calculated, to put some things into context for myself, I thought I might as well share.

It's easy to see and hear numbers in news bulletins from places half-way across a continent or country and lose any sense of how they relate to our safe and unthreatened lifestyles, homes and families.

I have to be open in admitting my analysis is simplistic, using readily derivable data, taken on face value, and that inherently I'm no doubt comparing apples and pears. However, as an indicator of scale I found it helpful - and sobering.

I've used IOM arrivals and mortality data to calculate year-to-date death rates for refugees fleeing Syria by boat. (Data from this press release) For comparability the following death rates are per 100,000 people, based entirely on recorded data - no forward projection has been included. This data is a snapshot in time and may significantly change in future.

All routes: 748
Central Mediterranean Route: 2,047
East Mediterranean Route: 40
West Mediterranean / West African Route: 1,051

In calculating these, I have assumed that the recoded deaths are in addition to the recorded arrivals. If they are already incorporated, then the rates will be higher.

And now for the context.

I've chosen a range of figures from the National Records of Scotland 2014 deaths data (Vital Events data taken from here). Again, death rates are quotes per 100,000 people. Data is split male/female - in each case I've taken the greater.

All causes (all genders): 1,014
Cancers (male): 320
Circulatory: 287
Respiratory: 130
All external causes: 61
Accidents: 40
Transport related: 6

The death rate for the single journey make by thousands fleeing via the Central Mediterranean route is twice as high as the death rate from all causes in Scotland last year, and 17 times greater than the rate for deaths from external causes (i.e. not illness). And that is without factoring in the violence these people are fleeing, and the arduous journeys, human trafficking, abuse, heat, exhaustion, dehydration, lack of sanitation, food and medical care at either end of their sea voyages.

As I said - I know my sets of figures aren't directly comparable - but then absolutely nothing the majority of us have within our real frame of reference and comprehension is.

No-one puts themselves, their children or families through that sort of ordeal unless utterly desperate. At a human level, as a nation we should be helping, not trying to work out how to bureaucratically pass the buck, or how to legitimately minimise our national responsibility and justify our lack of support to other humans in crisis with spin and fear.

In 2014, there were 54,239 deaths in Scotland.
In 2015 to date there have been 2,432 in the Mediterranean sea.
That's 5% of the total deaths form all causes in our entire nation last year, in only 8 months as a result of a single collective desperate escape.

Something Sweet to Say Thank You

2015-08-11T21:26:00+00:00

I't's Mini-M's last day at pre-school tomorrow. (Gulp!).

Since this is a a baking blog, I'll spare you the "how did she grow up so quickly, where has my baby gone?" routine - but I'm thinking it!

Technically she's not Mini any more, but I believe 'M' has already been taken…

I wanted to make something nice to say thank you to all of the lovely nursery staff that have made the past 4 years such fun and give her so many happy experiences and memories. Fudge is always a winner - it's easy to pass around, keeps well and virtually everyone likes it.

So I've made fudge. I should stress that I've made it - no small sticky fingers were involved in the process!

It's very delicious but simultaneously very easy fudge. It may revolutionise you're fudge making, in fact. No beating, no boiling sugar and only 4 ingredients. 3 if you can live without the marshmallows on the top to pretty it up…

Chocolate Strawberries and Cream Fudge (makes one 8x13 tray and cuts into a LOT of pieces)

Start with 400g chocolate (I used a mix of dark and milk)

Line your baking tin with parchment. You can cheat like me by scrunching up your baking paper then opening it up to make it fit - saves cutting!

You'll also need 200g of flavoured chocolate. I used Wedel strawberry bars (from the Polish section in the supermarket) but anything goes. I've also done it successfully with 4x Mars bars.

Roughly chop the strawberry chocolate. Chop up around 8 marshmallows for topping

Melt the chocolate in short bursts in the microwave, then when smooth, add all of 1 tin (397g) of condensed milk.

Oooh - pretty! Once it is combined, stir in the chopped chocolate

Tip out into the prepared tin, press into the corners then press the marshmallows into the top

Allow to cool at room temperature of a few hours, then turn out of the tin and chop

Voila. Pink cellophane fastened with tinsel - classy.

It really is that easy :-)

I'd like to say Mini-M chose the wrapping, just that she didn't - it just happened to be what I had to hand, although perhaps Mini-M is primarily the reason that we own a roll of pink cellophane…

Now I just have to confess to Mr E that I forgot to keep any pieces aside for him before I wrapped it - oops!

And if you have any thank-yous to say, I recommend accompanying them with fudge - it's a good life philosophy I think ;-)